Friday, 24 March 2017

Mug cakes!

[I meant to write a blog post this week but I haven't - so I brought this one forward. It was meant to be a backup for during Camp. #oops]

As I said in my very first post, my new favourite thing is mug cakes. MUG CAKES. CAKE in a CUP and you eat it with SPOON. I don't know why I love the idea so much, but it's so cute.

And since this is the Camp preparation season, I figured it would be a great time to share a few recipes for a three-minute (roughly) cake that you can eat at your desk (or wherever you write). Because food = motivation. Especially rich food. And this lava mug cake is very rich.

(You will need a microwave. Or you could probably cook it in the oven - but I don't know how long for. You could work it out, though - this is in no way an exact science!)

Melt the butter in a coffee mug. Add water, vanilla and salt and stir until smooth. Add sugar, cocoa powder and flour and stir until all the lumps are out. Cook in the microwave for 30 seconds. If you want less "lava" and more cake you can cook it for 10 seconds more.

- Chocoholic. Add a handful of chocolate chips or pieces of a chopped up candy bar.

* * * * *

So there you have an incredibly unhealthy, gooey, seriously chocolate cup of cake.

Note: when I made it, we decided that 2 tablespoons of butter, 4 of sugar, and 2 of cocoa sounded like a leeetle bit much considering we'll put that much cocoa and a cup of sugar (double) for a whole cake. And this is only a tiny cup-cake mug cake. I cut down the cocoa to one and a half tablespoons... and yet there is no way I could have eaten the whole cupful of mug cake.

Which brings me to another point: younger siblings. I have four. They all wanted my mug cake. We ended up each getting a spoon and taking a scoop (we went through a lot of spoons, because they all wanted second helpings, and we don't do double-dipping).

After all that chocolate, I thought I'd try something a little more delicate. Honey mug cake (all credit to the blog I got it from, here - again, picture included).

Add the butter to a mug and melt in the microwave for around 10-20 seconds.

Add the honey, egg and vanilla and beat with a fork until combined.

Add the sugar, flour and salt and beat again until fully combined and smooth.

Cook in the microwave for around 1 minute 15 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds (depending on your microwave power), then allow to cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, to make the frosting, add the butter and icing (confectioners') sugar to another mug and use a fork to cut the butter into the icing sugar until it reaches a clumpy texture, then beat with the fork until fluffy, around 1-2 minutes).

Spoon the frosting into a small piping bag or a ziplock bag fitted with an open star or plain round tip and pipe a swirl onto the top of the cooled cake.

(Optional) Drizzle with extra honey and serve immediately.

Notes:

If you do not have self-raising flour, substitute with plain (all-purpose) flour and add ¼ tsp baking powder.

This one did take a little longer and does contain egg. I admit I couldn't be bothered making 'frosting' (is that 'icing' in American??). I just ate the cake, although I could have simply put honey on top.

...correction: we ate the cake. Six of us. Although when everyone had had a 'dig' with their spoon, I took the remnants and ate them myself. Because it was quite nice, and smelt of hot honey.

(That's another thing! These get HOT, and stay hot for ages. But you're big kids. You can deal with that.)

*****

Hopefully I've inspired you to try your hand at a mug cake - they're so delightfully gooey! - and hopefully a mug cake is sufficient motivation to jolt you out of those sticky (that was an accident honest) spots in your Camp journey! (and besides what's camp without food?) (not that I've ever been on an actual camp)

Do you have a particular food to help you through Camp, or just while you're writing in general? And please tell me if you end up making a mug cake, I'd love to hear! :)

14 comments:

YESSSS! My sister just started making mug cakes recently, and they are SO SO SO GOOD. She's made a chocolate chip cookie on and a molten lava. We put ice cream and on and oh my goodness it's amazing. *dies from deliciousness* Thanks for sharing a few other recipes!

OH I LOVE MUG CAKES. I haven't made in forever, though that chocolate lava one looks insanely delicious! I have four younger siblings too, so sometimes, I just get a big glass bowl and make a bunch of batches as one cake. There are never leftovers. =)

My food I'll be relying on to get me through camp? Salted caramel hot chocolate. I know, it's a drink, but it's my fuel. =)

Salted caramel hot chocolate?? THAT SOUND SO GOOD. I've had hot chocolate about three times in my whole life :'( (Milo just isn't quite the same!) And drinks totally count as writers' fuel (I think coffee is the stereotypical one, though!)

Oooh. That chocolate one looks delicious...and SUPER sweet! What a fun snack to have on hand while writing. Especially on a cold day. :)

I love how you shared your mug cakes with your siblings. And I totally understand about going through tons of spoons. We do that when we're making oatmeal cookies because we all like to have a taste of the dough (or two tastes...or three. ;)) By the way, how may siblings do you have? Are you the oldest?

You asked if 'icing' is the word for 'frosting' in America. Does that mean you're not from America? Because if so, I am now super curious to know what country you are from. May I ask? :) (Oh! And to answer your question, we call it both 'frosting' and 'icing' in America. Either one will do.)

The chocolate lave one was REALLY rich (as I said, I don't think I could have eaten the whole thing!) Aw, yeah, if it was a cold, rainy day, it would be such a nice treat!

(definitely two tastes... or three!) I'm the oldest of five. And I might not have shared *slightly grumpy face* but when they line up with spoons, how can I say no???

Yes, you may ask, Miss March... doesn't mean I'll answer... ;) No, it's fine! I'm from Australia. (It's a big enough country that the internet goblins shouldn't be able to find me just from saying THAT.) We have kangaroos roaming the streets and we ride cattle in parades.

(...only half joking) (We get roos in our yard - we live out of town - and in dry country towns I wouldn't be surprised if they wandered the streets. And I have seen a photo of a man in a local parade riding a bull wearing a party hat.)(y'know the rumours about Australia? not all of them are rumours)

Dear me, yes. In a big family it is pretty nearly impossible to keep something that good to oneself. Haha. ;)

Well. You don't HAVE to tell me if you don't WANT to. *pouty face* (Haha. ;)) No but seriously, THANK YOU for satisfying my curiosity. It was very kind of you. :) And I was actually wondering if you might not be from Australia, just because I know quite a few other bloggers who are from there. And wow! It's just so strange to think of kangaroos roaming about like any other animal. We certainly don't see many of them around here. Haha. ;)

I've only found one or two bloggers from Australia. The main problem with most of you being American, I find, is that all your scheduled posts at 5-6am come at about 10-11pm here! (and then I don't have time to comment, because my parents want me to go to bed)

Once we had two male kangaroos wrestling about 5 metres away from my bedroom window... that was interesting. ;) For us, seeing deer roaming wild would be really weird (there are some feral deer, but not where we are). Or mustangs - although apparently there /are/ brumbies locally, not that we've ever seen any of them either. :D Maybe if we went on more wilderness walks??

Dear European Union:

Thanks for making my life that extra bit harder.

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